Nice vid, happy that they actually give an explanation on the F-4 performance over Vietnam, and good to hear them touch the energy theory of John Boyd.
We just love the Air Guard F-15's coming to the Netherlands in the spring.

Triple MiG-killer 85-102, now with Louisiana ANG, on final at Leeuwarden:DSC_5489 by R. Bezoen, on Flickr

One thing on the gun : the Navy never got a gun on their F-4's yet had a kill ratio that was a lot better than that of the USAF. Had to do a lot (if not everything) with the training. The gun is a last resort weapon.
The German Air Force did it the other way around: their 200-ish F-4's were bought without the BVR missile system, and modernized only in 1991/92 to carry the AMRAAM. Still got to figure out why on earth you'd buy Phantoms without BVR capability. They could have bought 400 F-5E's instead and kicked the **** out of all the MiG's.

Well, the F-15 having a big radar ultimately led to the F-22: who wants to fight at close range. Still has the Vulcan though.

__________________"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return"

Nice vid, happy that they actually give an explanation on the F-4 performance over Vietnam, and good to hear them touch the energy theory of John Boyd.
We just love the Air Guard F-15's coming to the Netherlands in the spring.

Triple MiG-killer 85-102, now with Louisiana ANG, on final at Leeuwarden:DSC_5489 by R. Bezoen, on Flickr

One thing on the gun : the Navy never got a gun on their F-4's yet had a kill ratio that was a lot better than that of the USAF. Had to do a lot (if not everything) with the training. The gun is a last resort weapon.
The German Air Force did it the other way around: their 200-ish F-4's were bought without the BVR missile system, and modernized only in 1991/92 to carry the AMRAAM. Still got to figure out why on earth you'd buy Phantoms without BVR capability. They could have bought 400 F-5E's instead and kicked the **** out of all the MiG's.

Well, the F-15 having a big radar ultimately led to the F-22: who wants to fight at close range. Still has the Vulcan though.

One problem with the USAF's use of the F-4 in Vietnam was they were more likely to be using the AIM 4 Falcon missile. The USN made earlier and greater use of Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles.

The AIM 4 had serious limitations and a pretty high fail rate that made it widely despised as an AAM.

The German Air Force did it the other way around: their 200-ish F-4's were bought without the BVR missile system, and modernized only in 1991/92 to carry the AMRAAM. Still got to figure out why on earth you'd buy Phantoms without BVR capability. They could have bought 400 F-5E's instead and kicked the **** out of all the MiG's.

Money and politics.

__________________History is not tragedy; to understand historical reality, it is sometimes better to not know the end of the story.